How old should a frachise be before joining Smash?

[Sweet Snow]

It's 2006, Project H.A.M.M.E.R is shown off and then is never seen again, around the time, Super Smash Bros Brawl is revealed, it is later revealed that the former project was in dev time since the GameCube era and the latter final roster was decided in 2005

A nightmare scenario is a character from that game joining the roster only for the game not to come out, so let's debate here, how old of a franchise should one be before joining Smash?

In my opinion, two years is the minimum, enough time for a game to come out and see if it has lasting popularity

 

[Specific Neptune]

six seconds

 

[winstein]

In terms of playable fighter, it's going to be 2 years only because the development cycle of the game is so that the characters are decided. In Ultimate's case, Splatoon made it in because it was old enough to be planned well, but ARMS missed it for being a bit younger than the planned stage.

Otherwise, my answer is this: at anytime that Smash is active, like how ARMS has an Assist Trophy. In fact, there are Spirits that even hailed from recent games, for you have Sushi Striker (a 2018 game) represented there. I think Smash is doing a great service by exposing people to as many Nintendo IPs as possible, since I noticed that unlike SEGA whose less-famous IPs even got noticed, Nintendo's less-famous ones are hardly noticed.

(Although I am not sure if anything other than playable characters are necessarily noticed)

Thank you for reading.

 

[Koops]

Really I find it depends if it was made before they decided on the final roster. Other than that, I don't find that the age of a franchise really matters other than sheer convenience.

 

[Blue]

0

It should be the amount of fans, Waluigi is not in smash, what?

 

[Smashley]

I don't think there should really be a limit for in general. for the roster then yeah, it'll have to be around at the time of planning (or be Pokémon), but if it comes out after that then as long as there's at least one released game in the franchise I think it's fair game for non-playable content

 

[Alex95]

A franchise as a whole, probably a few years. Enough time to gain traction and a fanbase so it can be considered for a slot on the roster. Otherwise, Assist Trophies and Spirits are pretty much just anything ever.

For just a specific game, well, there's Roy in Melee.

 

[Koops]

Yeah, comsidering the fct that even in Japan, Binding Blade wasn't a thing yet, (not like it would officially be a thing anywhere else) that is pretty crazy how they did that.

Although I would've liked it if someone else from the GBA era got there instead but I'm ok with Roy.

 

[Moldomré]

Uhhhhh, idk, one or two years? Honestly I don't think age matters as long as the character is originally from a video game.

 

[winstein]

I daresay that The Stretchers are already viable candidates for Smash, even if it's just a Spirit. Yes, this game may only be 1 day old, but it's still viable.

Thank you for reading.

 

[London Parris]

It doesn't matter how old it is, a character can get in. For example Roy got into Melee before his game was released. It could be new, for example a franchise can be in the works and I wouldn't care who got in. Bayonetta got in with only two games in. I define a gaming franchise with three or more games in it. So Bayonetta falls short at the time of her release in Smash 4.